This is the "Fossil Friday" post #49. Expect this to be a somewhat regular feature of the website. We will post any fossil pictures you send in to [email protected]. Please include a short description or story. Check the #FossilFriday Twitter hash tag for contributions from around the world!
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Today's interesting contribution comes from ESCONI 1st Vice President and Co-Field Trip Chairman Dave Carlson. Insects are the most abundant animals on Earth. With anywhere between six and ten million species, some estimates have insects making up as much as 90% of all animal life forms. For all that bounty, they are actually pretty rare in the fossil record. Currently, the oldest insect fossil is known from the Rhynie chert, which dates to the Devonian Period 396 million years ago. Dave's fossils come from Green River Formation, which is quite a bit younger, at about 50 million years ago. He sent this description on how he collected these specimens from the upper Parachute member of the Green River Formation in Douglas Pass, Colorado.
The older I get, the less stuff I want to keep around. With that in mind, I was going through a box of rocks in the garage with the intention of throwing them out. These were collected at Douglas Pass Colorado back in the 1990s. The site is near an FAA radar station northwest of Grand Junction, at an altitude of around 9000 feet. The rock exposed there is from the Upper Parachute Member of the Eocene Green River formation. This location has been heavily collected over the years, but may not be accessible now due to restrictions around the FAA building.
Awesome fossils, Dave! Thanks for sharing!
The specimens above may be insect abdomens, or they may be pupae.
The eyes are visible as dark circles with a wing in white on the left side.
Something mosquito-like.
The specimen directly above is part and counter-part, and is partly covered by matrix. It needs to be prepared but the exposed leg reminds me of a spider, except I don’t see 8 legs total.
Most of these are very small (1 to 3 mm), which is why I didn’t know they were there. Other larger fossils were also found such as Equisetum (Horsetail), Cardiospermum (Balloon Vine) and other angiosperms.
This one is one half of what may be a bee, with two wings showing on the right side.
The eyes are clearly visible on this specimen.
This is part and counter-part of a wing, about 1.8 cm in length.
